RSS reader, to-do list, drawing pad, and more

Feed Your Head

To keep abreast of the news, Makagiga includes an integrated RSS reader. In the drop-down list, right-click and select Delete to remove the pre-installed feeds. Then select File | Import | Import Feed List to import an existing list of RSS feeds into the program. Here you can select Edit | Preferences and then use the slider in the Feeds tab to set the Keep for date for the content and automatically remove obsolete articles that are, say, more than a day old. Unfortunately, this feature did not work in our lab.

When you select a feed in the tree view, the feed updates and displays a color-highlighted list of articles. Clicking an article changes its color while displaying a summary of the RSS entry with a matching link. If you follow the link, the page appears in your preset browser.

If you right-click the empty space below the link instead of left-clicking the link, a drop-down appears that lets you copy the content from the feed to a note and post it on your bulletin board. This means that you can quickly create a note about an important feed article. Unfortunately, the feed reader has one disadvantage: If you collect several similar feeds in a folder, in contrast to many other feed readers, clicking the folder will not display all the articles.

And Much More

Because I don't have enough space to look at all the other features in depth, a quick overview will have to suffice. Tools | Plugins lets you add more functions to your version of Makagiga by downloading plugins off the Internet [2]. For example, one extension adds YouTube searching to the search field. Clicking Get More Plugins at the bottom of the window takes you to a list of extensions available off the Internet and lets you point and click to set them up. Other tools in the same menu are Delete private data, which lets you delete your cookies and logfiles, and Backup, which lets you create an archive of any files and folders you have created previously. Then you could burn the results to a DVD for safekeeping, for example.

Makagiga includes its own miniature software universe and is well worth investigating. The software is not just for Linux fans that need to organize their lives or for lateral thinkers, it is also useful for newcomers and anybody involved in a learning process.